Sport, travel and general merchandise stores commonly sell articles for holding water and hydrating fluids for use during a variety of activities to enable the user to keep one's body healthfully hydrated, ward off thirst and improve sports performance. These fluid carrying articles are used for, and during, activities from leisurely walking and everyday use to hiking and more endurance sports or activities such as running, in-line skating, triathlons and adventure racing. These articles, depending on their configuration, provide varying levels of comfort and convenience relative to the intended activity and unique/varying activity variables.
Originally, day hikers used small to large, frame-less and internal/external frame, backpacks with shoulder straps, to carry bottles of water or other containers for holding fluids in a hands-free fashion. With the increased popularity of running and fitness in the 1970's packs which included shoulder straps presented an uncomfortable means of carrying fluid bottles for activities, such as running and fitness walking, due to the chafing of the shoulder straps, bouncing, large surface area coverage trapping sweat, and general inaccessibility to fluids while in motion (without stopping to take off and open the pack). Additionally, hand carrying a water bottle becomes cumbersome, tiring on the hand, uncomfortable, may hinder competitive performance levels over longer periods of strenuous activity and generally undesirable for many.
Thereafter, to improve the “hand-free” options for carrying fluids and further address the unique hydration carrying needs of more active sports enthusiasts, waist packs with a receiving holster or outside pocket for a water bottle became available. These types of packs are similar to a basic general use fanny pack available currently at most general merchandise stores. The water bottle holding packs are similar to general use fanny packs in that they attach around one's waist with two waist straps which usually buckle in the center front of the waist and include a rear “pack” portion for holding articles, are commonly made of fabric such as denier nylon (backpack style material), which rests just above, or partially on, the buttocks. However, these active sports water bottle packs differ from the above described general use waist (fanny) packs due to the unique jostling and body movement and activity related variables and physics. With the more recent active sports water bottle carriers, the rear pack portion, which rests on or above the buttocks and sides, provide one or more vertical or partially angled mounted receiving holster(s) or bottle sleeves with an opening at the top, in which the holster and opening is sized and shaped primarily to receive or hold “sports” (round cross section sports type) water bottles. To use such a bottle holding waist pack one reaches ones arm around and pulls out the bottle, drinks and then replaces the bottle. A “sports” water bottle is commonly a semi-durable plastic round cross section type bottle often utilizing a screw or press-on cap and a pop-top nipple or the like for drinking. Water or fluid may be expressed through the opening or nipple by squeezing the bottle with one's hand or and with some by holding the bottle up side down using gravity. Many of these packs are offered and constructed to carry up to two or more standard water bottles (holding volumes of about 20 oz. of water/fluid). These pack/bottle configurations are not optimal for running and other similar jarring types of activities: with such packs both with the bottle holster vertically configured, and slanted versions which the bottle rests at roughly a 45 degree angle to one side there is considerable bouncing due to the in-optimal position of the bottle relative to the waist strap angle producing torsional movement ‘about’ (around) the waist strap plane causing localized chafing of the bottle onto the user's body, and poor (distant) positioning of the weight (mass) of the water relative to the user's body's center of mass resulting in bouncing, sloshing of fluid in the water bottle due to the bottle position and bottle's cross sectional geometry, and ergonomic discomfort due to lack of integration of the components relative to the user's body.
The above sports types of water bottles used in most or all of current “bottle carrying packs”, which are used in most sports water bottle carriers (1-2 bottle carriers), are available from a number of companies, in various sizes (and volume), are readily available at sport shops and general merchandise stores, and are also often given as promotional or participation incentives at events such as 5 k and 10 k running races. These types of bottles are also used for a multiplicity of sports and activities, including cycling whereas they fit into a rigid bottle receiving, metal, composite or plastic, bottle “cage” located in many cases on the slanted center rod of a bicycle. Many of these bottle waist packs also have additional re-closeable pockets or space for carrying other items such as keys, money and energy snacks.
Primarily due to the need for people to carry more water while engaging in long distance and endurance sports and events, and to allow an alternative (to a bottle pack) for hands free access to water during running, biking, hiking and leisure activities, more recently, backpacks and waist packs which may hold more water (than practical with a water bottle pack) or fluid in a removable soft poly bag, bladder or reservoir internally have become available. Backpack style variations of this concept are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,290, to Thatcher (Jun. 27, 1995). Many of these bladder packs offer access to the fluid, contained in the bladder/bag, through a hose (commonly medical type tubing) which includes a sipping valve. The hose/tube commonly extends from the bladder over one's shoulder, conveniently, in close proximity to ones chest or mouth. The backpack style bladder packs provide for the ability to carry much more water as needed for specific high endurance activities, than is practical or comfortable with a standard sports water bottle pack, and provide an additional advantage for specific activities such as biking where removing ones hand from the bicycle handle bars is dangerous or undesirable relative to competitive performance. For long distance endurance activities where the need for larger amounts of water is necessary in such cases that fluids are not readily available and/or re-filling during the activity is not desirable or possible, these bladder backpack configurations are currently the best alternative. Although bladder packs have become smaller in size than those initially available, they are still not optimal, especially for running and sports which cause the user's body to undergo jostling or up and down movement due to discomfort associated with the size of the pack, larger sweat trapping area, chafing of shoulder straps, and the inconvenience for such sports as running to drink from the tube and difficulty with filling and keeping the bladder and tubing hygienic.
Subsequent to the bladder style backpacks, bladder style fanny or waist packs have become available such as disclosed in several. Though these bladder style waist packs generally are intended to carry less water than many bladder style backpacks, and may be used for running and the like, packs using this type of configuration present some similar and additional unique drawbacks depending upon the intended use and physics/dynamics of the activity. Including difficulty drawing the water or fluid from a reservoir resting lower (than the back) on the body, and the cleaning and filling inconveniences associated with the backpack style bladder packs.
In addition the above inventions and/or their features, heretofore known suffer from drawbacks and disadvantages in combinations in the following areas:                Causes user discomfort through bouncing and chafing        Lack optimal ergonomics and contouring relative to the human body        Incorporate complex use requirements or components        Difficulty in accessing and replacement of bottle/container while in motion        Unreliable retainment or security of bottle in pack (falls out)        Require additional mechanism or extra user step to secure bottle fully in pack        Limited bottle security for a wide range of conditions        Lack optimum physics of carrying mass/fluid on the human body        Employ features which present obstacles to optimal athletic or general performance Limited versatility for range of uses and range of users        Difficult to use and/or inconvenient to use        Difficult to clean and maintain hygienically        Poorly integrated features        Asymmetrically weighted when in use        
A need has arisen, therefore, for a comfortable, easy access, attractive, convenient, versatile, and hygienic device for carrying a container of fluids, or receptacle for containing other items or substances, on one's person for a range of activities from sitting and standing to activities or uses which are more active, body-motion or movement oriented in nature which may result in movements or jostling of the entire body and/or its parts due to self powered activities such as jogging/running, or otherwise motion powered activities of a person or being such as horse back riding or motorcycle riding.
There has now been developed, and disclosed herein a new and novel device which has a number of advantages not possessed by the products of this type known to heretofore be available. A bottle, container, or fluid carrying pack, and a bottle or container embodying the principals of the invention has a pack portion with means of retaining a bottle or container portion; a means of attaching the pack portion onto a users body or other article or being; and a bottle, container or fluid carrying portion.